Burbank High tennis coach Loi Phan has coached many teams in a number of sports since 1986.
Phan really liked the chemistry of what he had with his boys’ tennis team this season.
“We are similar. One guy goes down and one guy just picks up. We just fight for each other,” Phan said. “There is no standout. There are 10 guys together and we are a lot stronger as one.”
Phan’s group came up just short of moving on to the quarterfinals of the CIF Division 2 playoffs Friday as the Bulldogs lost 84-75 in games after both the Bulldogs and top-seeded Foothill of Santa Ana won nine sets each.
Burbank won four sets in the first round of round robin play. The Bulldogs won just twice in the second round and had set victories in the third and final round.
In singles, No. 1 player sophomore Raphael Lazaryev earned a sweep. He won 7-5 over Foothill No. 1 Thien-Tho Nguyen. He defeated No. 2 Caleb Posner 6-2 and No. 3 player Jacob Suwandi, 6-4.
Burbank No. 2 player David Kerimyan, who is a junior, went 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Burbank No. 3 Dominic Aleman, who is a junior, earned a sweep going 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.
In doubles, Burbank’s No. 1 team of Vamsi Chintha and Jason Kim lost 6-2 to the Foothill No. 1 team of Jaxon Bach and Emilio Rodriguez. Senior Blake Lewis replaced KIm after the first set, but he and Chintha lost both of their sets by 6-2 scores.
Burbank’s No. 2 doubles team of David Petrosyan and Harut Kelikyan went 1-6, 1-6, 1-6.
The Burbank No. 3 doubles team of Adonis Basco and Desmond McNeill won the Bulldogs’ lone doubles set, defeating the Foothill No. 3 team of Ehtan Kleinman and Nathan Nguyen, 7-5.
They lost a tie-breaker 7-6(7-2) against the Foothill No. 2 team of Wilson Collas and Ethan Cho.
